This invention relates to laundry appliances and in particular laundry appliances where the container in which the laundry is placed is presented to the user by being movable out of the laundry appliance cabinet.
Many laundry washing machines are front loading. This means users must bend over to load and unload the machines. A similar situation exists for many clothes dryers of the tumble type.
It is known to provide dishwashers with a sliding drawer arrangement whereby the wash system is mounted within the cabinet in such a manner in which it may be withdrawn horizontally out of the cabinet to permit access to an open top to load and unload dishes. Half height dishwashers of this type may be mounted so that they may be loaded at kitchen bench height. An example of such a dishwasher can be found in WO 93/12706. Ergonomic factors indicate this broad concept of moving load carrying vessels out of cabinets may be also useful in other home appliances, particularly but not solely appliances for the washing or drying of laundry.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a laundry appliance whereby the laundry containing vessel may be moved out of the appliance cabinet for ease of loading and unloading.
In a first aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a laundry appliance comprising:
(a) a cabinet,
(b) a laundry handling system moveably mounted within said cabinet in such a manner that it may be withdrawn out of said cabinet for access thereto, said laundry handling system including:
(i) a structure moveably coupled within the interior of said cabinet in such a way as to allow at least the upper part of the structure to be moved outwardly from said cabinet,
(ii) a vessel for accommodating said laundry rotatably supported within said structure,
(iii) means for rotating said vessel,
(iv) means for introducing fluid into said vessel,
(v) means for evacuating fluid from said vessel, and
(c) a front panel which forms part of said structure and which when the laundry handling system is retracted closes said cabinet to provide a fluid tight envelope about said vessel.
In a further aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a laundry appliance comprising:
(a) a cabinet,
(b) a laundry handling system mounted within said cabinet in such a manner that it may be forwardly tilted about a lower portion thereof to project out of said cabinet for access thereto, said laundry handling system including:
(i) a structure coupled at lower side portions within the interior of said cabinet in such a way as to allow the structure to revolve outwardly from said cabinet,
(ii) a vessel which in use contains said laundry rotatably and transversely mounted within an upper portion of said structure, such that the axis of said vessel is orthogonal to the direction of travel of said structure;
(iii) means for rotating said vessel,
(iv) means for introducing fluid into said vessel,
(v) means for evacuating fluid from said vessel,
(c) a front panel which forms part of said structure and which when the laundry handling system is retracted closes said cabinet to provide a fluid tight envelope about said vessel.
The term xe2x80x9cfluidxe2x80x9d, as used above, means wash liquid in the case of washers and air in the case of driers.
In the preferred embodiments appliances of the present invention, whether washers or driers, are horizontal axis machines. However, horizontal axis washing machines up until now have not been well favoured with regard to ergonomics, cycle time, and clothes capacity. Similar ergonomic problems exist with conventional front loading dryers. To address the significant issue of ergonomics an xe2x80x98east-westxe2x80x99 mounting of the machine""s axis is adopted together with a moving mechanism to present the clothes vessel to the user upon opening. Entry into the clothes vessel is provided through the wall of the vessel through a hatch that is slid circumferentially around the vessel before opening.